Artist's Statement

How do we perceive our world? Many people perceive the world in words. Some perceive it mainly contact or experience, some rely on sounds, while a few may use colors and shapes. Visual images have always fascinated me. They give me intense pleasure. I understand things through their visual arrangement and rearrangement. When something is strange and overpowering, I can manipulate and play with its imagery so that it becomes less terrifying and even familiar.

I grew up in a small rural village that was embraced by layers of mountains. The mountains also embraced the dividing line of South and North Korea. No one in the village talked about the line; it was just a thorny part of our simple lives. Things were definitely slower and simpler there. The distinction between reality and imagination was vague and blurred. Adults talked about monsters in a deep forest and UFO’s in the night sky; kids spent hours discussing such things as a land mine that blew up two children, and a spy plane that had crashed near my village.

The mountains provided the village with numerous flying objects. Therefore, seeds, leaves, insects, birds, balloons, planes, helicopters or UFO’s, anything that flies in the air has attracted me since early childhood. I remember spending hours following thousands of colorful balloons in the sky that came from the North and contained political leaflets. I spent hours trying to catch insects, birds, balloons, and boxes coming from planes, anything that flew. These images overpowered me in my dreams. If I could fly, would I be able to fight against those images? I was often aware that I was dreaming, usually about see-through flying dishes attacking my village. Other times I simply dreamt about flying. Because I knew I did not have wings, I had to use my arms when I flew. Because I knew I could not fly, I had to go through a lot of exercise to learn. Even in dreams I could not escape my reality; tings were still defined and regulated by an overpowering world. I had to put extra effort into creating my own definition and my own law, using visual images.

My memories and experiences are intermingled with my imagination and dreams. It is often unclear what is real and what is not. I find it hard to draw a line between the real and the imaginary, and that line is where I start. My work arises from the boundaries of what is familiar and what is not. It helps me deal with life better, one step at a time.

Artist's Bio

EDUCATION
2002     M.F.A. Sculpture, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, New York, NY
1995     B.F.A. Sculpture, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea

EXHIBITIONS
2002     M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Brooklyn War Memorial, Brooklyn, NY
1995     Group Exhibition, Cho-Hyung Gallery Seoul, Korea
1994     B.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Gong-Pyung Art Center, Seoul, Korea

AWARDS
2000 Charles Schwab Award